In general, it is considered desirable, because of a number of considerations, to filter out pollutants or other material from waste water or other liquids, thereby preserving the filtered liquid for re-use. While generally the purpose of such filtering is to save the permeate (the liquid), sometimes filtering is used to obtain the retentate, i.e. the material captured by the filter from the incoming liquid. This can also be true for fluids other than liquids.
Filtering issues and concerns are present in a number of industries, among them the laundry industry, in which it is important to reclaim as much water as possible. Commercial laundries often face high costs of disposing of waste water as well as the cost of new water. One significant issue in reclamation of laundry waste water is the presence of lint in the unprocessed wastewater.
Membrane-type filters have been shown to be not particularly effective in dealing with lint, since they shortly become clogged and are difficult to clean. Another filtering device which is considered for use in filtering applications is the rotary drum filter. Rotary drums are limited to low/no pressure operation and thus cannot remove small particulates or other pollutants. Further, drum filters typically are large and require considerable space, which in many applications is undesirable.
Still other systems, including rotary pressure filters, are often quite complicated and as a result, expensive. They also can be unreliable, particularly with respect to certain material, such as lint.
Hence, it would be desirable to have an effective filter system, specifically, one designed and arranged to have not only a long life, but which provides consistent, highly efficient removal of selected retentates, including in particular lint, for the laundry industry. It is also desirable that such a filter system be a continuous operation, as opposed to a batch operation, and further, be self-cleaning.